Chapter 247. The Troubling Goth Girl. (2/6)
“So? Are you going to keep trying to deny that you’re two-timing?”
“You’re really just making baseless accusations. I can sue you for defamation.”
“I have something to back my theory up.”
“What?”
“This.”
She suddenly pulled something out from her bag.
A wig and an eerie white theatre mask.
I didn’t recognize the mask, but my eyes narrowed into slits when I saw the wig. Why? It was because it was the one Rosa wore that day.
“What are these supposed to prove?”
“It proves that you’re linked to what went on that day.”
“In what way?”
“I was able to see a picture from the school’s security footage of some masked brown-eyed girl with blond hair going around sticking papers in front of the cameras. She was wearing this mask and wig from the theatre club costumes kept backstage where there aren’t any security cameras. I happen to be part of the theatre club so I easily recognized them.”
“Judging by the timing of events, it seems these were taken a bit before the incident in the gymnasium with Alicia. Nobody saw who took them. The school is looking into the matter, but they don’t know who it was.”
“A girl with brown eyes? Shouldn’t that automatically eliminate Rosa then?”
“I only found this out by chance because I overheard some teachers talking about this incident. I managed to sneak a peek at the picture they were holding from over their shoulder when passing by behind them. You can’t tell from the poor image quality, but I’m convinced the perpetrator had glasses under the mask they wore. They could be tinted to hide the person's eye color. Students are unaware of this incident as the school is keeping quiet about it. ”
“So you suspect the person in that image is Rosa based on some random guess that they may possibly have glasses with the effect of concealing one’s eye color?”
“No. I have one more thing to make the claim that the perpetrator wore glasses.”
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“My own two eyes. I personally saw the girl wearing the wig without a mask. She had glasses on when Alicia’s boyfriend ran outside, so I’m certain of the glasses. She was beside the door, opposite the one the student council vice president was posted up at. Though it was dark, I definitely saw her at that time. She was sitting down on a chair. I didn’t think much of her at that time though.”
“After that, for this last week, I went around comparing the features of the girl's face I remembered to all the girls in the school, and the one that resembled her the most was your girlfriend, Rosa.”
“Even if it was Rosa like you say, how does that involve me in any of this?”
“It all makes perfect sense to me if it’s you. You’re a phony devil. You can definitely put on a convincing act. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You’re like a magician. If you had an accomplice, it would all make sense how everything was done that day. I don’t know the details of how it happened, but I saw you exit the gym after Alicia’s boyfriend left. It’s the perfect alibi to claim that it wasn’t you. But I’m convinced you found some way to slip back inside the room without anyone noticing. It had to be when everyone was distracted.”
“The entire process reminded me of the way you conned me into signing that contract with you. It was like magic.”
“Also, the reason you did it. It might have been to help both me and your girlfriend's best friend. You’d be hitting two birds with one stone.”
“Alicia isn’t romantically interested in the student council president, I already know that much. Your girlfriend might have asked you to help Alicia get the student council president and other guys off her back. Thus, you put on that act to try and get him and other guys to give up on her by posing as Alicia’s boyfriend. If you’re going to claim you’re not two-timing, the two of you probably just drew your faces close enough to make it appear you kissed those two times. It’s something commonly done in theatre as well. This reasoning seems to be the most likely case.”
“To get guys to stop pestering her best friend with endless confessions, Rosa got you to become the elusive mystery boyfriend X that the entire student body is trying to hunt down. Meanwhile, Rosa is the elusive mystery hooligan X that the faculty and staff are trying to track down.”
“Haaaaaaah… you’re quite a pain. Aren’t you supposed to be a brainless goth girl with only your obsessive love for the student council president on your mind?”
“I may not be the smartest academically and have to work super hard to keep my grades up, but that doesn’t mean I’m brainless.”
“Well, true enough, academics don’t mean much. You could have the highest grades, but still be a clueless moron. I have one question though, where were you at the time when you got a clear look at the perpetrator’s face?”
“Didn’t I say I was at the shop the entire dance?”
“Then there’s a big contradiction in what you said. You said you got a good look at the person in disguise by the door, but how could you do that from so far away? There would be people blocking your line of sight if you’d been at the shop the entire time.”
“Huh? Uh… she walked by me after.”
“You specifically said she was seated at that time by the exit. Also, after the commotion that ensued, I doubt you would have had a chance to see the disguised individual up close from where you claim you were because a crowd formed around the door shortly after. They would have blended into the crowd and likely returned the wig and mask after that. It was also dark at that time, the lights only went on after people crowded around the exit.”
“So, how could you possibly make out her facial features from such a distance in the dark and say with such certainty that they resembled Rosa’s? Taking these factors into account, I can’t imagine you were where you claim you were at that time. The only way your story could be true is… if for some reason you lied to me about where you were located at that time.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, why would I lie about something like that?”
“Indeed, why would you lie about something like that? But the real question I should ask is why you had to meet me in person? Why did you choose for us to meet up at the lab room of all places? Why did I bump into the vice president there? Was that meeting simply by chance? Coincidence? No… I didn’t meet the vice president there. I met the real vice president outside the room when I exited, didn’t I? The one in there was an imposter. As you’d say, a phony.”
The second I uncovered the truth, the goth girl’s body stiffened up. Her eyes were panicked, alarmed to an extreme.
I took a step closer to her and continued, “The real reason you made out her facial features so well was because you were right next to her all along. The reason you could see through the disguise is because you, yourself, are always in a disguise. You even said you’re part of the theatre club. Acting like another person, I finally understand it all.”
I further closed the distance between us while I spoke, “You make yourself physically look like Alicia by dressing up with a wig, makeup, and colored contacts. The person back in the room was someone you got to help you convince me you were two different people. You were afraid that I’d see through your disguise at some point, so you wanted to ingrain into my mind early on that you weren’t the vice president.”
She stepped back until she had nowhere left to go. Her back was up against a wall. She was left with nowhere to run or hide.
I stood directly in front of her, leaned forward, and whispered in her ear, “When you realized I was at your school, you became scared that someone knew your secret, that you hide your real appearance. That I’d reveal how you really look, your piercings, tattoos, makeup, everything you use to conceal this version of yourself from the guy you like. You’re afraid he’ll be disgusted by this version of yourself, aren’t you? You call me an imposter and phony, but isn’t the biggest imposter here is no one but you.”
Chapter 247. The Troubling Goth Girl. (2/6)
“So? Are you going to keep trying to deny that you’re two-timing?”
“You’re really just making baseless accusations. I can sue you for defamation.”
“I have something to back my theory up.”
“What?”
“This.”
She suddenly pulled something out from her bag.
A wig and an eerie white theatre mask.
I didn’t recognize the mask, but my eyes narrowed into slits when I saw the wig. Why? It was because it was the one Rosa wore that day.
“What are these supposed to prove?”
“It proves that you’re linked to what went on that day.”
“In what way?”
“I was able to see a picture from the school’s security footage of some masked brown-eyed girl with blond hair going around sticking papers in front of the cameras. She was wearing this mask and wig from the theatre club costumes kept backstage where there aren’t any security cameras. I happen to be part of the theatre club so I easily recognized them.”
“Judging by the timing of events, it seems these were taken a bit before the incident in the gymnasium with Alicia. Nobody saw who took them. The school is looking into the matter, but they don’t know who it was.”
“A girl with brown eyes? Shouldn’t that automatically eliminate Rosa then?”
“I only found this out by chance because I overheard some teachers talking about this incident. I managed to sneak a peek at the picture they were holding from over their shoulder when passing by behind them. You can’t tell from the poor image quality, but I’m convinced the perpetrator had glasses under the mask they wore. They could be tinted to hide the person's eye color. Students are unaware of this incident as the school is keeping quiet about it. ”
“So you suspect the person in that image is Rosa based on some random guess that they may possibly have glasses with the effect of concealing one’s eye color?”
“No. I have one more thing to make the claim that the perpetrator wore glasses.”
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“My own two eyes. I personally saw the girl wearing the wig without a mask. She had glasses on when Alicia’s boyfriend ran outside, so I’m certain of the glasses. She was beside the door, opposite the one the student council vice president was posted up at. Though it was dark, I definitely saw her at that time. She was sitting down on a chair. I didn’t think much of her at that time though.”
“After that, for this last week, I went around comparing the features of the girl's face I remembered to all the girls in the school, and the one that resembled her the most was your girlfriend, Rosa.”
“Even if it was Rosa like you say, how does that involve me in any of this?”
“It all makes perfect sense to me if it’s you. You’re a phony devil. You can definitely put on a convincing act. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You’re like a magician. If you had an accomplice, it would all make sense how everything was done that day. I don’t know the details of how it happened, but I saw you exit the gym after Alicia’s boyfriend left. It’s the perfect alibi to claim that it wasn’t you. But I’m convinced you found some way to slip back inside the room without anyone noticing. It had to be when everyone was distracted.”
“The entire process reminded me of the way you conned me into signing that contract with you. It was like magic.”
“Also, the reason you did it. It might have been to help both me and your girlfriend's best friend. You’d be hitting two birds with one stone.”
“Alicia isn’t romantically interested in the student council president, I already know that much. Your girlfriend might have asked you to help Alicia get the student council president and other guys off her back. Thus, you put on that act to try and get him and other guys to give up on her by posing as Alicia’s boyfriend. If you’re going to claim you’re not two-timing, the two of you probably just drew your faces close enough to make it appear you kissed those two times. It’s something commonly done in theatre as well. This reasoning seems to be the most likely case.”
“To get guys to stop pestering her best friend with endless confessions, Rosa got you to become the elusive mystery boyfriend X that the entire student body is trying to hunt down. Meanwhile, Rosa is the elusive mystery hooligan X that the faculty and staff are trying to track down.”
“Haaaaaaah… you’re quite a pain. Aren’t you supposed to be a brainless goth girl with only your obsessive love for the student council president on your mind?”
“I may not be the smartest academically and have to work super hard to keep my grades up, but that doesn’t mean I’m brainless.”
“Well, true enough, academics don’t mean much. You could have the highest grades, but still be a clueless moron. I have one question though, where were you at the time when you got a clear look at the perpetrator’s face?”
“Didn’t I say I was at the shop the entire dance?”
“Then there’s a big contradiction in what you said. You said you got a good look at the person in disguise by the door, but how could you do that from so far away? There would be people blocking your line of sight if you’d been at the shop the entire time.”
“Huh? Uh… she walked by me after.”
“You specifically said she was seated at that time by the exit. Also, after the commotion that ensued, I doubt you would have had a chance to see the disguised individual up close from where you claim you were because a crowd formed around the door shortly after. They would have blended into the crowd and likely returned the wig and mask after that. It was also dark at that time, the lights only went on after people crowded around the exit.”
“So, how could you possibly make out her facial features from such a distance in the dark and say with such certainty that they resembled Rosa’s? Taking these factors into account, I can’t imagine you were where you claim you were at that time. The only way your story could be true is… if for some reason you lied to me about where you were located at that time.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, why would I lie about something like that?”
“Indeed, why would you lie about something like that? But the real question I should ask is why you had to meet me in person? Why did you choose for us to meet up at the lab room of all places? Why did I bump into the vice president there? Was that meeting simply by chance? Coincidence? No… I didn’t meet the vice president there. I met the real vice president outside the room when I exited, didn’t I? The one in there was an imposter. As you’d say, a phony.”
The second I uncovered the truth, the goth girl’s body stiffened up. Her eyes were panicked, alarmed to an extreme.
I took a step closer to her and continued, “The real reason you made out her facial features so well was because you were right next to her all along. The reason you could see through the disguise is because you, yourself, are always in a disguise. You even said you’re part of the theatre club. Acting like another person, I finally understand it all.”
I further closed the distance between us while I spoke, “You make yourself physically look like Alicia by dressing up with a wig, makeup, and colored contacts. The person back in the room was someone you got to help you convince me you were two different people. You were afraid that I’d see through your disguise at some point, so you wanted to ingrain into my mind early on that you weren’t the vice president.”
She stepped back until she had nowhere left to go. Her back was up against a wall. She was left with nowhere to run or hide.
I stood directly in front of her, leaned forward, and whispered in her ear, “When you realized I was at your school, you became scared that someone knew your secret, that you hide your real appearance. That I’d reveal how you really look, your piercings, tattoos, makeup, everything you use to conceal this version of yourself from the guy you like. You’re afraid he’ll be disgusted by this version of yourself, aren’t you? You call me an imposter and phony, but isn’t the biggest imposter here is no one but you.”
